More Than Happenstance
by CourtneyM
Summary: Gibbs receives a package that makes him question what he thinks he knows of his own past. Can he use what he has learned to repair the damage already done? Some JennyGibbs. Please read & review.
1. Prologue: Both Sides of The Fence

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of the characters (except for Alexandra).  
A/N: So I'm really new to this whole thing of posting fan fiction online. Patience and constructive criticism is appreciated.

**Prologue: Both Sides of the Fence**

The man sat on the wooden bench with his camera to his face, watching the young woman walk down the sidewalk. He had been watching her for days now, at least when he was sure she would not notice him. She always had her purse clutched under her arm and a pair of headphones on, but he noted she was still alert, not absorbed in the music like so many others. When her face came into clear view he occasionally snapped a picture, sometimes several. When she got closer he redirected his camera lens toward a boring sculpture and feigned interest as she strode by.

_00000000000000000000000000000000000_

"I do not need you to tell me how to handle my team." Gibbs set his coffee down on his desk and thumbed through a stack of mail left while he was at lunch.

Jenny Shepard resisted the urge to yell at him and counted to three under her breath. "I'm just trying to give you a suggestion. I thought you might want some help."

"If I wanted help I would have asked for it." He slid his finger under the edge of padded envelope and ripped it open. "I've handled them. . ." His voice trailed off as he pulled the contents out and looked at what was on top. He quickly flipped the envelope over and upon seeing no return address, tossed it down on the desk. He looked through the first few slowly and then glanced briefly at those remaining.

"Jethro, what is it?" Jenny asked, having picked up on his sudden change in mood. Receiving no answer, she prompted him again. "Jethro?"

Gibbs looked up at her and the look in his eyes scared her, not because he was angry, but because it was one she had ever seen before. He opened his mouth and suddenly shut it, deciding instead to hand her part of the contents of his hands.

Jenny looked down at what she now held. Frowning, she brought the item closer to her face and looked back at him, her eyes wide.

Gibbs ran his fingers over one of the photos and spoke softly, not even looking up at his boss. "This isn't possible."


	2. Chapter 1: Digging Up Trouble

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of the characters (except for Alexandra).  
A/N: So I'm really new to this whole thing of posting fan fiction online. Patience and constructive criticism is appreciated. Reviews make me write faster too.

Chapter 1: Digging Up Trouble

Alexandra dropped her keys on the ledge inside her front door and headed for her bedroom. "Hey Mags," she said as she went past her roommate's bedroom.

"Hey Lexa, question for you."

Alexandra pressed the button to power up her computer and slipped out of her coat. "What's up?"

"You made plans for the holidays?" Mags stepped into Alexandra's doorway.

"No, I've got to work the day after."

"My mom said you're welcome to join us if you want to," Mags offered.

Alexandra sighed. She had come to expect this conversation every year, having no family of her own. "I appreciate the offer, but I think I'll stay here, just enjoy the down time and the peace and quiet." She forced a smile.

"If you change your mind, just let me know." Mags studied her for a minute and then disappeared back into her own room.

"Thanks." Alexandra sighed and looked at the picture of her mom as she sat down to start studying for school.

_00000000000000000000_

"Jethro, it might not be her. The photo is taken from a distance and you haven't seen her in almost sixteen years," Jenny reasoned, looking at the photos again.

"No Jen," Gibbs paused as he sat down behind his desk. "I got these photos for a reason. Someone took these photos without her knowledge. Even if it's not her, someone needs to protect her."

"What are you going to do?"

"Find her," Gibbs said without hesitation.

Jen sat on the edge of his desk. "How?"

"The same way we always find people, investigate."

"You're going to tell them about your family?"

"Yes, if it will help find her."

"Well it looks like you'll get the chance soon." Jen glanced up as Gibbs' team filed out of the elevator, Tony and Ziva picking on McGee.

"Hey boss, have a nice lunch?" Tony asked.

"Tony, call down and get Abby and Ducky up here."

Ziva raised a brow and shrugged as Tony picked up his phone.

Jen stepped in close to Gibbs. "I should get back up to my office."

"Stay," Gibbs said, avoiding her gaze. "Please," he said softly.

Jen nodded and sat back down on the corner of his desk.

Abby bounced across the room, her pigtails flopping. "What's up boss man?"

Gibbs looked up to see Ducky coming into the area behind Abby. "Have a seat Abs, there is something I need to tell all of you." As Abby sat, Ducky eyed Gibbs and the photos he was still holding in his hands.

"I received these photos in the mail today." He reached over to McGee to begin passing the stack around. "We need to find this girl and learn who she is."

"So why were they sent to you?" Tony asked.

Gibbs gave Tony a glare.

"Sorry boss, shutting up now."

"Like I was saying, there is something I need to tell you before we start." Gibbs paused, still looking at the one picture in his hands. "You know I've been divorced three times, but I've been married four times." He now had everyone's undivided attention. My first wife, Shannon, and I had daughter, Kelly. While I was overseas during the Gulf War Shannon saw a Mexican drug dealer kill a Marine and they were put into NIS protective custody. One morning the drug dealer shot the NIS agent protecting them while he was driving and Kelly and Shannon were killed in the accident."

Gibbs' team just looked at him. Jen and Ducky look everywhere except at him.

Tony was the first one to speak. "You had a daughter?"

"Yes Tony."

Ziva looked up from one of the photos. "You think this is her, don't you? In the photo? You think this is Kelly."

When Gibbs didn't answer her, Abby hopped up out of the chair. "So let's figure out who this is in the photo."

"How Abs, all we have are these photos. Unless she still has the same name," Tony argued.

"Look closely at the photos and examine the envelope they came in." Abby whipped a pair of gloves and picked the envelope up off Gibbs' desk. "I'm going to look for fingerprints on the photos and envelope."

"I'll start looking under her birth name," Ziva said, handing the photos back to Gibbs.

"As soon as Abby get's done with the photos McGee and I will scan them in and start looking clues as to where they were taken." Tony nodded at Abby. The three agents and the forensic scientist scattered, leaving Ducky and Jen around Gibbs' desk.

"Jethro, do you really think this is Kelly? Where has she been for all these years?" Ducky asked.

Gibbs looked up. "I don't know. Witness protection maybe."

"Then why didn't you know about it?" Jen frowned. "And if the drug dealer is dead, why weren't they taken out of witness protection?"

"I don't know." Gibbs repeated. "All I know is that right now I need to find this girl."


	3. Chapter 2: So Close

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of the characters (except for Alexandra).

A/N: Thanks to those few who have reviewed thus far. Updates may come slower since I will be at work all day and into the evening. Patience and constructive criticism is appreciated. Reviews make me write faster too.

**Chapter Two: So Close**

"Hey Abby, find anything yet?" Gibbs asked, strolling into her lab.

Abby glanced up. "What? No Caf-Pow?"

"No coffee-run Abbs, sorry." After talking with Jen and Ducky, Gibbs had to spend the next few hours resisting the urge to run down to Abby for news. He knew she needed time and his hovering wouldn't speed her up. However, the possibility of Kelly being alive was consuming his thoughts, causing memories of her to race.

_He remembered the last time he had come home on leave. They had been held later than he expected and by the time he was allowed to leave, it was dark. As he approached the drive where had had arranged for Shannon to pick him up, he saw the sliding door of their van spring open. His daughter hopped out and darted up to him. He reached down and lifted her into his arms._

_"Hey there princess." Gibbs held her tight against him. He logically knew she was getting much too big to be picked up and carried, but he really didn't care at the moment. All he had thought about for months was coming home and seeing his wife and daughter, holding them. He hated being away and missing watching his daughter grow up. He had always been active in taking care of her and not being there was hard._

_ "I missed you daddy." Kelly buried her face in her father's neck._

_"I missed you too, very much." He smiled as his wife walked up from the car. "I missed you too Shannon." He tried to get close enough to his wife to hug and kiss her, but holding Kelly was making it difficult._

_Seemingly reading his mind, Shannon hugged him at the side. "It's alright, she needs this right now," Shannon said, referring to Kelly. Once at the car Kelly insisted her father sit with her in the backseat and Gibbs' daughter fell asleep against him on the ride home. He loved watching her sleep in peace and for the first several nights after he returned, he did just that, watch her sleep._

Now though, he tried to focus his thoughts on how he could help find the girl in the photo. So he had brought with him to Abby's lab a folder. "Did you find any prints?" he asked.

Abby shook her head. "Just your's and the one's from the guys in the mailroom. Nothing helpful print-wise on the photos either."

Gibbs set the folder down in front of Abby. "Maybe this will help from the other angle."

Abby opened the folder and picked up a photo from within. "She a beautiful girl, Gibbs."

"Ahh, thank you." Gibbs was still uncomfortable talking about his family and was unsure what else to say.

"How old would she be now?"

"Almost 23-years-old." He paused. "Anyways, I thought you could run an age progression on it. There's also a photo of Shannon in there if that would help."

Silence elapsed as Abby put the photos on the scanner and waited for it to warm up. Gibbs frowned at Abby's strangely quiet behavior. "All right, Abbs, whatever it is, just say it."

Abby swiveled in her chair to face him. "Why didn't you tell us? Or better yet, why do some people know?"

"The Director and Ducky only found out when I was in the coma. Ziva knows because she found out when she did backgrounds on all of us before she started at NCIS. I never actually told anyone."

"But why? Why didn't you tell us?"

Gibbs sighed and leaned against her desk. Because I didn't want to think about it. After they were killed I just put all of it in the back of my mind, or tried to. The reason had nothing to do with you guys, just me."

Abby gave a half smile. "Does that mean I'm off the hook for not telling you about my stalker boyfriend?"

Gibbs just laughed. "Just never do it again."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm ready to run the progression on the photo now." She looked over and saw him staring off into space, lost in thought. "Gibbs?"  
"Hmm," he answered.

"Well find her, wherever she is, we'll find her."

0000000000000000

"Hey boss, I think we found something," Tony called out as Gibbs and Abby exited the elevator. The pair walked over to the plasma and looked at the two photos pulled up side-by-side.

"Did you find her?" Gibbs asked.

"We found where she goes to school. In a couple of the photos you can see other people in the background wearing University of Maryland sweatshirts. But that didn't tell us which campus."

McGee took the remote from Tony and zoomed in on the photo on the right. "Look at the bus. All the campuses have shuttle busses for off-campus parking lots. Some of the shuttles are identical across campuses, but this one in the photo is not. These shuttles are used solely at the College Park campus."

"College Park? But that's half an hour away." Abby looked over at her boss. "Gibbs?"

"This can not be a coincidence," he said, more to himself than anyone on the team. "Anything else?"

"I checked DMV records in Maryland, Delaware, New York, D.C., and Virginia. No Kelly Gibbs in the right age range." Ziva paused. "We need more to go on."

"What about running her face from one of the photos against DMV records?" Tony suggested.

"We need a better shot of her face to compare them," Abby answered.

"So all we know is that she spends time on the College Park campus." Tony leaned back in his chair. "That doesn't give us much."

Abby took the remote to the plasma and started scrolling through the photos. "See there? You can see little bits of buildings. We might be able to use campus photos and narrow it down to an area or a few possible buildings on the campus."

"McGee, help Abby with the photos." Gibbs glanced down at his watch. "All right, it's already 4:30p.m. so the offices on campus would be closed by the time you got there. First thing tomorrow, Ziva and Tony, I want you to go to the campus. Start with academic advisors of graduate students, then undergraduates."

"That could take all day boss." Tony watched his boss look at the plasma.

When Gibbs didn't answer, Abby glanced over and answered for him. "Tony, it's all we have."


	4. Chapter 3: Edging Closer

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of the characters (except for Alexandra).

A/N: Thanks to those few who have reviewed thus far. Updates may come slower since I will be at work all day and into the evening. Patience and constructive criticism is appreciated. Some more reviews and suggestions would really be appreciated. And thanks to those that have reviewed!

**Chapter 3: Edging Closer**

Alexandra was not pleased. She was over two hours late getting off work and had to be back in the office extra early the next morning. All this on a part-time salary. As she made her way down the building stairs she noticed something leaned against her door. She picked up the brown envelope and frowned when she saw no name. Her hands full, she went on inside and dropper her bags in the recliner. "Mags, were you expecting a package?"

Her roommate came out of the living room. "No, where did that come from?"

"Leaned against the front door. There's no name on it."

"I just got home an hour ago and it wasn't there then."

"Do you want to open it?" Lexa asked.

"Oh no, you go ahead. You found it."

Lexa rolled her eyes. "Logical argument." She tore off the flap and pulled out the contents. All it contained was a half-sheet of paper and a wallet-sized photo. _Do you miss your daddy?_ was scribbled on the paper. The photo was starting to yellow and she didn't recognize the man.

"Lex, is that your father? Before he died?" Mags asked.

"I don't know. I've never seen a picture of him. Well, at least not since before the accident."

"So you don't remember him at all?" Mags took the photo as Lex nodded. "You do kinda look like him though."

Lexa took the photo back and ran her finger over the face of the photo. "Mags, this is crazy. You can't tell anything from this photo. It's old."

"This is creep. Cryptic note, old photo. Maybe you should call the police."

"No, it's probably nothing. Probably wasn't even intended for me. My dad has been dead for over 16 years."

_00000000000000000_

Gibbs had sent everyone home for the night, or at least tried to. Abby had said she was going to stay and try to identify the buildings in the pictures. Feeling useless, he had gone home as well and was now sitting on the couch in his basement, looking through an old photo album. His peace was interrupted though when he heard the basement door creak open and Jen appear at the top of the stairs.

"Checking up on me Jen?" Gibbs asked, setting the album aside.

"No," she answered. "I did bring food though." She set the paper sack down on the work bench and start pulling items out. "Anything new on the search?"

Gibbs shook his head. "Abby is trying to narrow down buildings before we go to the campus in the morning."

"You're going with them?" She handed him a Chinese carton and a pair of chopsticks.

"I need to do something to help Jen." This sitting around is frustrating." Jen started to sit down on a stool to eat her own food but Gibbs scooted over on the couch and motioned for her to join him. Silence reigned again as they ate.

"Jethro, what are you thinking about?"

He started to lie and say nothing but something stopped him. "All the time we've missed together if it's really Kelly. Wondering if Kelly being alive means Shannon is alive too. Wondering where they've been."

"I, um, looked into Witness Protection. No one will confess to anything. We need to talk to someone on the case, someone that put them in Witness Protection, but it was so long ago, I don't know who." Jen sighed. "I'm sorry. I don't know what else to try."

Jethro turned to face her. "Don't be sorry. I'm just glad you did try."

"Tell me about her, about Kelly."

"Kelly?" Jethro reached over and put down his carton of Chinese. He had never talked about his daughter with anyone since her death. But right now, it felt right to him. Like he needed to. "She was, she was Kelly. Curious, into everything, wanted to try everything. And so smart. Gifted actually. She was in the gifted program at her school." Gibbs paused, trying to maintain his composure, but it was too hard. "I was building a boat then too. She would come downstairs after dinner and help me. She would get so tired but wouldn't go upstairs to bed. Almost every night she'd fall asleep under the boat and I would carry her. . .carry her up to bed. God I miss her Jen. So much."

Jen gently took his hand in hers and rubbed his palm with her thumb. "I know you do. You were a wonderful father Jethro. And if that girl in the photo is her, everything will work out. We'll figure out what happened, where's she's been. It's just going to take some time."

Gibbs looked at his boat. "We've lost so much time already. I just down want to lose anymore."


	5. Chapter 4: Back to School

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of the characters (except for Alexandra).

A/N: Thanks to those few who have reviewed thus far. My beta had to leave town unexpectedly so updates may be slower as I try to edit on my own. Patience and constructive criticism is appreciated. Some more reviews and suggestions would really be appreciated. And thanks to those that have reviewed!

**Chapter 4: Back to School**

"Good morning, Alexandra," one of her co-workers called out as she got out of her car.

"It's morning, the jury is still out on the good part though." Alexandra slung her bag over her shoulder and joined her co-worker as he walked. Joseph was one of the older employees in her division and like several of the other guys, had become quite over-protective. "Whoops, hold on, I left my cell phone." Lexa ran back to her car, grabbed the phone, stared at the object that had caught her attention, and then walked back to Joseph.

"What's up?" he asked, as they continued walking.

"Who's car is that?" Lexa asked.

"That blue truck? I don't know. I've never seen it before. Why?"

"It just looks familiar."

"Other than here?" When Lexa nodded, Joseph stopped at the door. "Lexa, is something going on?"

She waved her building access card in front of the reader and opened the door. "It's nothing. Probably just looks like another truck I've seen," Lexa said, trying to reassure herself, but as she slipped the access card into her purse she saw the envelope she had found her door the night before and an uneasy feeling crept into her.

_00000000_

Gibbs arrived early to the office and having seen Abby's hearse in the parking lot, went on down to her lab. "Hey Abbs, did you go home last night?"

Abby looked over her shoulder at Gibbs. "Well not my home, I went to, never mind. Verging on over-share." She motioned for him to join her. "I identified a couple of the buildings; some of them were different sections of the same one. Based on building IDs I made two lists, complete with advising offices to check with."

"That's good work Abby, really good." He took the papers she was offering and glanced over them. "Thank you."

"I just hope it helps. I'm trying to get access into the student database right now. I figure I can narrow the search by age and some physical characteristics. Then I'll just go through the results manually."

"Abby, slow down. Go have something for breakfast." Gibbs kissed her on the side of the head. "I've got to get back upstairs."

_ooooooooooooooooooo_

"Hey Boss, you ready to go?" Tony asked as Gibbs strode off the elevator. Ziva and McGee were also already present.

"Let's go." Gibbs grabbed his gun from his desk drawer and slipped it into his holster.

"That would be a yes." Tony felt a smack to the back of his head. "Boss, don't you think the gun is overkill, we're going to a college, not a prison. Although college can be like a prison." Another smack.

"You should always be prepared Tony," Ziva added.

The ride to the campus was short, seeing as how Gibbs was driving, and after finding a parking spot the four piled out of the car. Gibbs handed one of the sheets Abby had given him earlier to Tony. "You and Ziva get started on this one. McGee and I will work on the other. Call if you learn anything."

Tony and Ziva nodded. "On it boss. We'll catch up with you later." Tony held up the map provided and frowned.

"Upside down, Tony, you are holding upside down." Ziva yanked the map from his hands and turned it right side up. "Better."

"Advising office number four of the morning." Tony tucked the list and map into his pocket and held the door open for Ziva.

The receptionist looked up at them. "How can I help you two?"

Ziva held out a copy of one of the photos they had received. "Is the girl a student here?"

"I really can't say, I see so many students come through here. You might check with any of the advisors that are in today. They might remember her."

"All right, thank you." Tony led Ziva to the closest office. Four advisors later, things were looking a little more positive.

"Yes, I'm fairly certain she was one of my advisees. May I see the photo?" The advisor took the sheet of paper and held it closer. "Alexandra, very smart. She graduated last May. Was accepted into the graduate accounting program."

"Do you have a last name for her?" Tony asked.

"I can't think of it off the top of my head. Let me look it up."

Ziva looked at Tony nervously. They were both thinking the same thing. _Is this her?_

"Here we go, May graduates, Alexandra Mitchell."

"What else can you tell us about her?" Ziva took the photo back.

"Not much since she finished her undergrad. You should go upstairs and talk to them. They can tell you more. Third floor, office 306."

"You've been very helpful, Ms. Evans, thank-you." Tony moved towards the door.

"Is Alexandra all right?"

"Of course, we just need to make sure everything is ok," Ziva assured her.

Out in the hall, Tony stopped Ziva at the bottom of the stairs. Do you think we should go ahead and call Gibbs, tell him we might have found her?"

Ziva shook her head. "No, we should make sure it's her, gather as much information as possible."

Office 306 was easy enough to find but proved rather advisor-less. "The graduate advisor has left for the winter break and I'm new. Is there anything else I can do to help?" the receptionist asked.

"Is there anyone else here that might know her, be able to give us more information on her? All we have is this photo and a possible name." Tony sighed as things went downhill.

"Well, there's still professors around. Let me look up her past class schedules. What did you say her name was?"

"Alexandra Mitchell."

The receptionist turned her attention back to her keyboard. "Alexandra Mitchell, oh, here, we go." She pulled out a piece of paper and pen and wrote down some names. "Those were some of her teachers. One of them she's had twice, Dr. Harrell. I think he's still around – I saw him this morning. His office is 337."

Ziva and Tony thanked the receptionist and went to find Dr. Harrell. His office door was only open an inch so Tony knocked.

"Yes, please, come on in," A voice called from the other side.

"Dr. Harrell?" Tony asked.

"Yes, and you are?"  
"Agent Dinozzo and Officer David, NCIS. We have a few questions for you."

"Of course, please have a seat." The professor, probably in his sixties motioned at the two chairs across from his desk.

"Dr. Harrell, do you recognize the woman in this photo?" Ziva handed him the copy.

He studied it and then looked up suddenly. "Heavens yes, this is one of my students. Alexandra Mitchell. She's actually going to TA a class for me next semester. Is she alright? I just talked to her the end of last week."

Tony glanced over at Ziva and allowed a small smile to creep on to his face. They had found the girl in the photo. Now the question became, was she Gibbs' daughter?


	6. Chapter 5: Back to School Pt 2

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of the characters (except for Alexandra).

A/N: Thanks to those few who have reviewed thus far. My beta had to leave town unexpectedly so updates may be slower as I try to edit on my own. Some more reviews and suggestions would really be appreciated. And many thanks to those that have reviewed!

**Chapter 5: Back to School Part 2**

"Is Alexandra all right?" her professor repeated, returning the photo to Tony. Ziva had slipped out into the hallway to call Gibbs, leaving Tony to try and stall until he arrived.

"We don't have any reason to believe she's not ok."

"Where did you get these photos then, if I may ask?"

"They were sent to our boss anonymously, at work. Now that we know who she is we need to find out why." Tony stood up as Gibbs entered the office. "Dr. Harrell, this is our boss, Senior Agent Gibbs. Boss, this is Dr. Harrell, he's had Alexandra in a couple classes, knows her quite well."

Gibbs reached out to shake the professor's hand and then sat down. "What can you tell us about her?"

"Alexandra is a graduate accounting student, top student. She's focusing on accounting fraud examination and information systems. She loves to learn, she'll sit up here and read textbooks for hours when she can. She's a bit of a loner, at least in the program. She's friendly with the other students, for the most part, but she's definitely not into partying like many of them are. Has a bit of a temper, she get's fed up with the other students not giving due attention to their studies. I think part of that is because she works a lot and that does not leave a lot of time for anything but studying. She has one stable job and then several on and off again jobs. She loves her regular job though, involves auditing and fraud at some regional, multi-state utility. Travels for her job when classes aren't in session."

"What about her personal life?" Gibbs asked.

"Lives off campus with a roommate. Not dating that I know of. I heard from another student she was a while back but something bad happened. Like I said, a bit of a loner. I invited her over for a holiday dinner, that's why I talked to her last week, but she declined. Really uncomfortable around large groups of people or when the attention is on her. She didn't even attend her undergraduate graduation. She can be social though, I've seen her force herself to do it at recruitment functions. And she volunteers someplace for children with special needs, teaching sign language to children with autism I think."

"Do you know anything about her background? Before she started college?" Tony hoped he would not be mad for taking the initiative and asking the question. Tony couldn't know that Gibbs was barely able to maintain his investigator control and not leave immediately to find her.

"She really hasn't talked about it much. Something happened when she was a child, an accident, and she doesn't remember much of her childhood. She did say she moved here from somewhere in the Midwest, Illinois I think. I do know both of her parents are dead. Her father died when she was young and her mother died, some sort of health problem, a few years before she graduated high school. I don't think she has any other family, at least she's never mentioned him. She only came out here because she got a full-ride scholarship and as she said, it was a chance to start over."

Gibbs stood up. "Thank you, Dr. Harrell, for your time." Gibbs shook his hand again.

"Senior Agent Gibbs, Agent DiNozzo, please let me know if there is anything else I can do. I hope everything is alright."

"It will be," Gibbs said with determination.

_ooooooooo_

Tony and Gibbs met up with Ziva and McGee outside the building. The former two had been sent to the registrar's office to get whatever information they could.

"Hey, you two find anything?" Tony asked, slipping on his sunglasses.

"All these laws about privacy, protecting privacy." Ziva scowled.

McGee shrugged. "We called Abby, gave her the name. She already had hacked into the school database."

Tony noticed Gibbs was staring off, not visibly listening as they walked back to the car. "Boss, everything ok? Did your daughter know sign language too?"

"My wife was a special education teacher, so yes, we taught Kelly," Gibbs paused. "We need to get back to the office, now." The ride back was just as fast as the ride to the campus, just with less traffic. They rode upstairs in silence, more because Gibbs wasn't saying anything and no one else wanted to risk getting on his bad side. As they exited the elevator, Gibbs reverted back to his usual direction given mode. "Tony, get Abby up here to tell us anything she found in the school records. Ziva and McGee, pull DMV records, everything you can. Abby will have a date of birth to use." Gibbs didn't wait for an answer, instead jogging up the stairs and straight to the director's office.

_ooooooooo_

"Thank you, Jethro, once again for not knocking." Jen got up and came around to sit on the front edge on her desk. "How did it go?"

"We found her."

"Found the girl in the photo?"

"Her name is Alexandra Mitchell." Gibbs proceeded to relay to Jen most of the conversation he had with Alexandra's professor, including the parts about Alexandra's volunteer activities and how it related to Kelly. "It's her, I'm sure it is Jenny."

"What about her parents?"

"The professor said they were, uh." Gibbs wrung his hands. "He said they were both dead. That her mother died shortly before she graduated high school."

Jen walked over to him slowly. "I'm sorry Jethro, I know you were hoping Shannon would be alive too." She took his hands in hers.

Gibbs nodded. "I need to focus on her right now."

"I understand. Did the professor say anything about her father?"

"Only that he had died when Alexandra was young. I don't know if she truly thinks I'm dead or if that's just a cover for witness protection."

"Maybe the accident that caused her to lose her memory was the same accident in which the NCIS agent protecting her and Shannon was killed. Anything she was told after that she would just be believing on blind faith." Jen ran her hands up and down his arms. "Jethro, if she doesn't remember who you are you need to be cautious when you meet her. If you spring this on her all of the sudden . . ."

"I know. I'm not going to go pick her up. But when she comes back here someone needs to talk to her, find out what happened. Ziva knows the details but she's uncomfortable if she's not forcing the words out of someone, McGee can't. . ."

Jen cut him off. "I'll do it. I'll talk to her. We'll figure it out, okay?"

Gibbs nodded. "Thank you, for helping."

"Always. Come on, let's go see what the team has found out about her."


End file.
